LAYER 00: MISSING
by Pretty Vacant
Summary: Years after the Wired has established itself, Arisu's daughter, Yoko, insists that she has seen God. Arisu ignores the "silly" statement, but when Yoko is kidnapped, and a girl who calls herself "Lain" appears, Arisu begins to question everything...


*** Author's Notes *** The anime "Serial Experiments Lain" is copy-righted to its original creators and their associated parties. I wrote this a little while after I finished chowing down the whole series. ^^; I delayed putting it up because, with the exception of the laws of time and space and the occurences in the anime, I think that this happening is quite impossible, but, whatever. You decide. I'm not sure if I'm continuing this or not. Maybe if enough people like it I will, but, who knows? Enjoy. ^^;;  
  
"Mommy! Mommy! Look at the picture I drew!"  
  
"Hm?" Arisu looked down from her cooking to see her young daughter, Yoko, holding up a picture, a big smile on her face. Taking the picture, which was of Yoko playing, Arisu smiled. "Yoko, this is beautiful!"  
  
"I drew it for you, Mommy..." Yoko said.  
  
"Thank you. I love it!" Arisu bent down and hugged Yoko, picking the girl up. "Tell me what you're doing in the picture."  
  
"Okay, well..." Yoko took the picture in her small hands. "...I'm playing at the playground, and, there's you, you came to pick me up and you're smiling because you're happy to see me, and I'm smiling because I'm happy to see you..."  
  
A figure, that was drawn, standing by the car, caught Arisu's attention. "Yoko... who's that?"  
  
"Oh? Her? She's some girl that always comes when you come. But when we get into the car, she's gone. She doesn't come all the time, though... and she doesn't play on the playground, either."  
  
Arisu's heartbeat had quickened when she saw the girl, drawn by the car. Arisu had seen this girl before, when she went shopping with her husband. She was sure that this was the same girl. But, in the back of her mind, she wasn't so sure.  
  
"Mommy? Mommy?"  
  
Arisu blinked, and saw Yoko's confused expression. "What's wrong, Mommy? Don't you like my picture? Aren't you going to put it on the fridge, so Daddy can see it?"  
  
"Of course, Yoko... I'll put it there..." She let the girl down. "...Now, you go and watch some TV, okay? Daddy will be home soon and then dinner will be ready."  
  
"Yay!" Yoko ran off into the other room. Arisu heard the sound of the TV, and she turned, putting the picture up on the refrigerator. She stared at it for a while; stared at the girl. The girl who Yoko seemed to have drawn so exact; the girl was just standing there, looking sad in a way, like she was lost. But Arisu had never seen this girl before... ever. And she was sure that this girl didn't attend Yoko's school... Arisu was familiar with every parent there, since it was a small school, and none of them had a child that she didn't know about. So who was this girl, and, what was she doing, just standing there?  
  
Arisu turned her attention away from the picture and turned back to her cooking. Why was this bothering her so much? Why did this girl seem so familiar, yet feel like a stranger? Arisu had never seen this girl before when she went to pick up Yoko... was Yoko making her up?  
  
No... Yoko couldn't have known what that girl looked like... that girl that Arisu had seen for the first time so long ago... Yoko couldn't have made up a girl that looked exactly like her...  
  
Taking another glance at the picture, Arisu gasped. The girl was gone, like she had never been drawn there. Arisu couldn't believe it. How could she have just disappeared like that? Arisu quickly covered the place with an pink elephant magnet. A few moments later, she removed it, to find the girl there again, like she had never been gone. 'I must have been imagining things...' Arisu thought, as she stirred her soup. '...the girl never left the picture. It's too silly.'  
  
The phone rang, and, wiping her hands off with her apron, Arisu answered it: it was her husband, explaining he wouldn't be home until late.  
  
"Are you sure you can't just... it's that important? Well, I... yes... all right... I see..." Arisu played with the notepad that hung next to the phone, scribbling circles with the pen. Her nail tapped against the hard plastic of the reciever. "...Yes... so, should I save some left-overs for you? No...? You're going to pick something up on the way home instead? Yes... that's fine... all right. I love you... bye." Hanging up the phone, Arisu returned to cooking. Again and again the image of the girl flashed into Arisu's mind, but Arisu fought back by thinking of other things. It was difficult, for some reason, to keep her mind off of it.  
  
"What do you mean Daddy's going to be late?"  
  
"That's what he said, Yoko... Mommy can't help it." Arisu placed Yoko's dinner in front of her. "Now, eat up the meal that Mommy worked very hard at."  
  
Yoko pouted, but began to eat as Arisu sat down. "I wanted Daddy to help me set up my new game tonight... he promised!"  
  
"Daddy's sorry, Yoko... but work is very important..." Arisu reasoned, "...Daddy's work helps us eat this good food."  
  
"I know... but I just wish that Daddy was home more..."  
  
"I know you do... I know you do."  
  
They ate in silence for a while, until Yoko finally said: "You know that girl that I always see at the playground, Mommy? Well, she was here before dinner; when I was watching TV."  
  
Arisu froze, and then she said slowly, "Yoko, what do you mean, 'she was here?'"  
  
Yoko nodded. "She was here, Mommy. She told me that I needed to be careful, and then she was gone."  
  
"Yoko, don't be silly. How could she have been here? I didn't hear the door open; noone came in." Arisu then thought about how the girl had just disappeared from Yoko's drawing, but then was back a few seconds later. But Arisu was sure that it had been the light that made it seem like the girl was gone, or that she had been imagining things when the girl 'disappeared' from the picture. But now, the girl had been talking to Yoko? It didn't make any sense at all.  
  
"But it's true, Mommy! It really did happen! I'm not lying!"  
  
"It's not attractive to lie, Yoko. Now just eat your dinner. You're taking a bath tonight, too."  
  
"I don't want to!" Yoko protested.  
  
"You'll do what I say, Yoko! Do you want to get in trouble with me or Daddy? Daddy won't help you with your game if you misbehave!"  
  
Yoko was silent, and she then began to eat her dinner again. "Fine..." she said.  
  
"Good." Arisu relaxed and continued to eat her dinner as well, not thinking any more about that girl.  
  
While Arisu washed Yoko in the bathtub, the TV, which was on in the living room, could be heard; the day's news was on, the headlines being announced.  
  
"Several kidnappings have been occuring all over the city lately," the news-anchorman announced, "the police are yet to figure out who has been comitting them, and what their motive in doing so is. They do think that it must be some kind of group in organized crime. In the meantime, however, it is advised to keep your children, as always, but especially now, under close observation. This warning is especially aimed at the parents of children who are of the ages four through ten, as those are the ages of the victims that the kidnappers have been targeting."  
  
"Some of the kids from my class are missing..." Yoko said as Arisu washed her back, "...do you think the kidnappers got them?"  
  
"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Yoko... how do you know that they aren't sick? They might be on a trip somewhere..."  
  
"No." Yoko shook her head. "The kidnappers got them. I'm sure of it. One of the teachers got in trouble because on her class's recess, three kids got taken away, and they haven't found them yet. Some of the kids think they're dead, like maybe the kidnappers killed them because their parents didn't do what the kidnappers wanted them to do."  
  
Yoko's suddenly blank and intent stare, something you don't see on a normal six year old, struck Arisu in a way she couldn't explain. It disturbed and frightened her. It was like Yoko saw the children taken away; from the window in her classroom, but she didn't say anything. But Arisu didn't think that Yoko would just keep something so important like that to herself; Yoko knew that when you saw something bad happen, you're supposed to tell an adult right away... but did Yoko realize that seeing something like this meant something bad was going on? Arisu knew that they'd only just announced the problem today... but maybe Yoko's school had already known about it... but they didn't tell any of the parents... or maybe they didn't want to... but why wouldn't they? The school would be in legal problems if something like the kidnapping of the school's students wasn't announced to the parents right away... or maybe they wanted to cover it up, somehow.  
  
"Yoko, you shouldn't think of things like this... it'll give you nightmares. I don't think that the students are being killed. Why would you say such a thing?"  
  
Yoko shrugged. "I don't know... it's just what I think."  
  
"Yoko..." Arisu's face hardened. "...you didn't see some of the children being taken away, did you?"  
  
Yoko was silent, and she slowly nodded. "Are you mad at me, Mommy? For not telling someone?"  
  
"Yes, yes, I am, Yoko. This is very serious. We're going to have to call the police and tell them what you saw. You'll be helping them..." Arisu started to rinse off Yoko, and get out her towel.  
  
"Wait! Mommy! You can't tell them that I saw them!" Yoko suddenly protested. "Oh, Mommy, please! Don't tell them!"  
  
"Why shouldn't I, Yoko? This is important! *Very* important!"  
  
"If you tell someone, I'll..." Yoko looked down at the bathwater.  
  
"You'll what, Yoko? You'll what?" Arisu looked at Yoko.  
  
"I'll be in trouble with them."  
  
"The police? Yes, if you don't tell, you *and* Mommy will be in trouble with the police."  
  
"No, not the police..." Yoko shook her head. "...not the police."  
  
"Then who, Yoko? *Who* will you be in trouble with?"  
  
"The... the people who did it, Mommy..."  
  
There was a dead silence in the bathroom. But, to keep herself clear- headed, Arisu tried to be calm. As soon as she got Yoko to bed, she decided, she was calling the police and telling them that her daughter had seen a kidnapping at her school unfold.  
  
"Hm? Yoko, how will the people know it's you who told?" Arisu lifted Yoko out of the bathtub and started to dry her off.  
  
"Because... they know I saw them take the students, Mommy. They saw me watching..."  
  
"'Saw' you?" Arisu dried Yoko's hair and pulled a nightgown over Yoko, helping her put her arms and neck through the holes. "What do you mean, Yoko?"  
  
"They knew that I saw them."  
  
"Tell me how it happened, Yoko. We'll go sit in the living room, and you can tell me all about what happened, okay?"  
  
Yoko nodded, following her mother in the living room. Arisu turned off the TV, and the two sat down on the couch.  
  
"It was after my class's recess was over, and I didn't want to go in. So, I decided to hide in the bushes near the door, and wait for the next class to come out, so I could play with one of my friends. The next class came out, and I got with my friend, Hikaru, and we went off to play near the fence."  
  
"Then what happened?" Arisu was staring intently at her daughter, who was staring down at the floor as she spoke.  
  
"Well, there were already some kids there, and we all started to play together. That's when the bad people came. They were two men, dressed in black suits; and one of them said to the other man, 'How much room is in the truck?' And the other man said, 'Room for three.' And then they took three of the kids, not me and Hikaru. And one of them took the kids, and then one of them said to me and Hikaru, 'If you tell anyone, we'll take you, too.'" Yoko's tone was cold and shaky, and at some moments, it seemed she was going to burst out into tears.  
  
"Didn't anyone else see those men?"  
  
"No. We went off playing someplace where we weren't really supposed to be; off near the old shed. The teachers always tell us not to go there, but sometimes, the older kids do. Noone else saw it happen. Just me and Hikaru. That's why I don't want you to tell, Mommy. I don't want to be taken away. Please don't tell anyone. I don't want to be taken away and killed. Please, Mommy..." Yoko feebly crawled in Arisu's arms; she was trembling. Arisu's brain was racked with the choice of either not telling anyone what her daughter saw, or telling and having Yoko live in fear. But how would they find out where Yoko is?  
  
Finally, Arisu said, "I won't tell anyone, Yoko. I won't let them take you away."  
  
"Thank you, Mommy..." Yoko hugged Arisu, and began to softly cry. She was revealing a vulnerability in her that Arisu had never seen before; the child had never wept so intensly before.  
  
Arisu had no idea that this was one of the last times she would comfort Yoko. She had no idea what was going to happen; she only knew that she had to watch over Yoko now, more than ever. She was sure she had everything under control. Nothing was going to happen to Yoko, or at least that's what Arisu was confident about now.  
  
But her heart felt uneasy, nervous, somehow. And in the back of her mind, the image of that girl, who's appearance seemed to haunt Arisu, made itself visible, and made sure that it filled Arisu's whole mind until Arisu was able to push it back. But it still haunted and lingered on, like it would never die. As Arisu put Yoko to bed, the image seemed to loom over her, like a rain cloud. But Arisu shooed it away, and it disappeared. She wasn't going to think about it again. It was silly to think about.  
  
"Goodnight, Yoko," Arisu said, as she handed Yoko her favorite stuffed animal, and gave her a kiss.  
  
"Goodnight, Mommy," Yoko replied, and Arisu turned off the light. 


End file.
